5/VI. 1920.

Dear Vladimir Alexandrovich!

I have just learned from Maria Ilyinichna of the death of your son. The news struck us both like a thunderbolt! It must have been heart disease. Allow me, on behalf of both myself and Nadezhda Konstantinovna, and Maria Ilyinichna, to shake your hand most firmly—and your wife's as well, whom, unfortunately, I have not had the chance to meet. One must have great fortitude to bear this blow, exhausted as you both are by the devil of overwork and excessive labor. But bear it you must, for workers are in terribly short supply. Once again, I shake your hand most firmly!

Entirely yours,

Lenin

First published in 1960.

"Questions of the History of the CPSU," no. 2.

Printed from the manuscript.